By: Dilshad Azeem
ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has halted 80 percent of its routine operations, including the weekly holidays of its employees, and started a 3-shift work to finalize the electoral rolls.
“Our entire staff has been engaged in the preparations for Preliminary Electoral Rolls (PERs) after which two major steps are to be followed,” said a well-placed Nadra official while talking to The News here Saturday.
The ECP would be in a position to declare the final lists sometimes in mid of current year after passing through three major steps, the ECP officials said.
“The PERs, their display at union council level and re-verification process are the cycles before going to announce the Final Electoral Rolls (FERs),” they added.
They also referred to meeting the legal and constitutional requirements in the process as the display of the PERs requires at least 21-day display to get public feedback, objections, missing entry or any other error.
The Supreme Court (SC) has given Feb 23, 2012 deadline to the ECP and the Nadra to finish the electoral roll work while updating the existing lists. “This is well-nigh impossible due to time constraint as either the Nadra or ECP or both would have to request the court for an extension in the deadline,” the officials said.
The sources said that Nadra, which has inducted data entry operators, would ensure at least 5,00,000 entries every day once the PER is completed and printout is obtained by its concerned departments.
The authority, they said, would manage to finalize the PER lists by first week of February despite inductions and three-shift work, and, then hand these over to the ECP for a demonstration to get objections and include the missing names.
“The court deadline will pass in this course of time when the PERs would be displayed simultaneously at 65,000 places for 21 days under the People’s Representative Act,” the official said.
The official said the ECP and the Nadra are presently at the third cycle and would be passing through it on Feb 23, the SC deadline. “According to our estimates, the PERs would be available in March to go ahead for the final phase which includes refresher of the lists in accordance with new entries.”
When contacted for a comment, the Deputy Chairman Nadra Tariq Malik said that the new voters lists would be totally flawless and non-controversial as “Our main purpose is to ensure quality.”
To a question, he said Nadra has suspended its more than 80 ordinary operations to prepare the electoral rolls and to abide by the Supreme Court orders. “Presently, around about 25,000 to 30,000 new identity cards are being issued to enrol those attaining the voter’s age besides the routine numbers.”
“We are making all out efforts, both in sense of human resources and financial input, to finalize our job at the earliest possible time,” the Nadra deputy chairman said.
By: The News
